Dracula Untold

Dracula Untold is an American movie which contains elements of horror, action, adventure, fantasy and romance. It was released in the United States on October 10, 2014. It was directed by Gary Shore. It stars Luke Evans, Sarah Gadon and Dominic Cooper. Charles Dance and Art Parkinson appear in supporting roles.

Although several critics praised Luke Evans' performance as the title character, the film received largely negative reviews. It has a 22% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Nevertheless, the film was a moderate box office success. Having been made on a budget of $70 million, Dracula Untold went on to earn $217 million at movie theaters across the world.

Dracula Untold was rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for its depictions of vampire attacks and graphic violence in warfare as well as some scenes of a sexual nature.

Contents

Plot

The film opens in 15th century Transylvania. Although Transylvania is nominally an independent country which is ruled by a prince, the prince accepts the Turkish sultan of the Ottoman Empire as his overlord. A tribute is paid to the Ottoman sultan each year and large numbers of Transylvanian boys are forced to join the Janissaries and fight for the Turks. One of those boys is the prince's own son Vlad Dracula. During his time in the Ottoman army, Dracula becomes an excellent fighter and gains a reputation for cruelty. He kills thousands of men by impaling their bodies on sharp sticks, thus earning him the nickname Vlad the Impaler. Dracula later returns to his homeland and rules it as its prince. He tries to put his violent past behind him. He marries a woman named Mirena and they have a son named Ingeras.

One day, Vlad and some of his soldiers find the helmet of a Turkish scout in a stream. Fearing an invasion, they follow the direction which the stream carried the helmet. They come to a mountain called Broken Tooth Mountain which has a cave near its summit. They enter the cave, expecting to find the Ottoman soldiers camping there for the night. They find that the cave is littered with human skeletons and realize that the powder which covers its floor is made of crushed bone. A monstrous creature with shining red eyes appears. Displaying its superhuman strength and speed, the creature attacks and kills all of Vlad's soldiers. The blood of the wounded creature dissolves when it is exposed to sunlight. The creature retreats, allowing Vlad to escape. A monk named Brother Lucian later explains to Dracula that the creature is a vampire. The vampire was once a mortal man who summoned up a demon in order to gain dark powers from it. A curse on the vampire means that it has to remain inside the cave until someone drinks its blood and then drinks the blood of another human.[1]

A Turkish emissary arrives at Vlad's Easter feast. Vlad hands over his tribute to the sultan in the form of a chest full of silver coins. The emissary mentions that a Turkish scouting party recently went missing nearby, implying that Vlad killed them. The emissary says that, under the circumstances, Vlad should pay a greater tribute in the form of a thousand Transylvanian boys who will be trained as Janissaries. Even though Vlad knows that it is likely to lead to a war that he cannot win, he refuses to let the Turks have the thousand boys. Vlad's wife reminds him that, during his time in the Ottoman army, he was very close to the young Sultan Mehmed II. She advises him to negotiate with Mehmed in person. Dracula tries to convince Mehmed not to take the thousand boys. Claiming that he is worth a thousand boys, Dracula even offers to serve in the Ottoman army himself again. Mehmed refuses this offer and insists on Dracula's young son Ingeras being one of the thousand boys who is to join the Ottoman army.

Ingeras says that he is willing to become a Janissary. A meeting is arranged at which Ingeras is to be handed over to the Turkish emissary. As Ingeras is walking towards the emissary, Dracula whispers to him to run back to his mother. Dracula kills the emissary and the soldiers with him.

War is now inevitable. Out of desperation, Dracula goes back to Broken Tooth Mountain to seek help from the vampire. Dracula is told that, if he drinks the vampire's blood, he can temporarily gain all of the vampire's powers for three days. those powers include the ability to control the weather and dominion over creatures of the night. If he resists the great urge to drink human blood, Dracula will become an ordinary man again after three days. if he does not resist that urge, he will stay a vampire forever and will one day have to do a favor for the vampire who made him. Dracula agrees to drink the vampire's blood.

Dracula finds his senses of sight and hearing have become heightened. He has gained superhuman strength and speed and the ability to transform himself into a flock of bats. As a side effect of his vampire condition, silver makes Dracula weak, he cannot cross running water and his skin slowly burns in sunlight. Vlad returns home to find Castle Dracula under attack by Turkish soldiers. Dracula fights the soldiers single-handed and kills them all. Afterwards, he orders that all the inhabitants of the castle move to a monastery for safety.

In order to prevent himself from attacking his own people and drinking their blood, Dracula keeps himself weak by holding a piece of silver. Mirena notices this and finds out the truth about her husband's condition. While making love to Mirena, Dracula notices an artery pumping blood in her neck. With difficulty, Dracula resists the urge to drink Mirena's blood. He apologizes to her before fleeing into a forest. Dracula notices that a man is following him. The man, whose name is Shkelgim, hints that he knows Dracula has become a vampire. Dracula wrongly assumes that Shkelgim has come to try to destroy him. Instead, Shkelgim wants to serve the vampire Dracula. He offers to cut himself and let Dracula drink his blood. Dracula resist the urge to drink Shkelgim's blood and leaves.

Brother Lucian notices that Dracula cannot cross running water. Realizing that Vlad has become a vampire, Brother Lucian calls on the prince's own people to destroy him. Dracula is shut inside a building which is set on fire. He is able to escape because the black smoke from the fire blots out the sun. He angrily tells his people that he became a vampire in order to protect them and that it is only because of him that Transylvania has not yet been conquered by the Turks. Mirena calms her husband down and prevents him from attacking his people.

On what was supposed to be his last night as a vampire, Dracula notices a large number of Ottoman soldiers advancing towards the monastery. Knowing that he will not be able to fight them all, Dracula commands an enormous flock of bats to attack the soldiers. The soldiers that Dracula saw were only a decoy force. A small number of Turkish soldiers enter the monastery, kill most of the people there and kidnap Ingeras. While trying to protect her son, Mirena falls of the edge of the monastery's high wall. Dracula tries to stop her fall but he is too late. The dying Mirena begs Dracula to drink her blood so that he will continue to be a vampire. She tells him that it is the only way that he will have the strength to rescue their son. Dracula reluctantly agrees. At that moment, the curse is lifted from the vampire in the cave on Broken Tooth Mountain. He loses his monstrous appearance and leaves the cave.

Dracula gets the wounded male and female survivors of the attack on the monastery to drink his blood, transforming them into an army of vampires. He summons up a storm which blots out the sun, thus allowing the vampires to attack the Turks in the daytime. The other vampires kill all the Turkish soldiers easily. Dracula himself goes after Mehmed, who is holding Ingeras captive in his tent. Mehmed knows that Dracula has become a vampire and knows that silver makes vampires weak. To protect himself, Mehmed has covered the floor of his tent with silver coins. he fights Dracula with a silver sword. Mehmed overpowers Dracula and threatens to kill him by driving a wooden stake through his heart. Dracula escapes death by changing himself into a flock of bats. He kills Mehmed with the wooden stake.

Vlad and Ingeras leave the tent. Vlad asks one of the vampire soldiers how the battle went. Dracula is told that all of the Turks have been killed and that Ingeras is now the only human left alive. The other vampires gather and advance menacingly towards Ingeras. Brother Lucian reappears. He uses a cross to keep the vampires at bay. Dracula kills one of the vampire soldiers by impaling him on a spear. He orders Ingeras to run to Brother Lucian and orders Brother Lucian to take Ingeras away. Dracula causes the thick black clouds in the sky to part. The sunlight destroys all the other vampires and Dracula is seen burning.

Dracula is believed to be dead. His son Ingeras succeeds him as Prince of Transylvania. Secretly, however, Prince Vlad lives on as a vampire. Shkelgim revives the charred corpse of Dracula by letting some of his own blood fall onto its mouth.

The scene then changes to a city in the present-day. Dracula introduces himself to a woman named Mina, who strongly resembles his long-dead wife Mirena. The vampire from Broken Tooth Mountain watches Dracula and Mina from a distance. As he follows them, the vampire from Broken Tooth Mountain says, "Let the games begin."